Our 3 yr. old Russian Cutie

Goof-a-potamus  2012

The adoption of our second son (seen here as the "goof-a-potamus") happened 3 yrs. after we brought our first son home.  Going in, we knew this one was without a doubt our final adoption related adventure.  I was determined to make the most of whatever came our way.  Little did I know lots of adventure was waiting for us, some good and not so good!  The good news:  Our beautiful (now 3 yr. old) is from the city of Tver (formerly known as Kalinin from 1931-1990) which is the administrative center for Tver Oblast, Russia. It is located 3 hours by car, northwest of Moscow. (We are sooo thankful we didn't have to make the 15 hr. train trek across the arctic tundra again!)  It is a small, quaint community richly steeped in Russian Empire history.  During the Cold War, it was home to the air base Kryuchkovo, which is no longer in service.  Today,  Tver is home to Migalovo, which is one of Russia's biggest military airlift facilities. It has a fairly busy city center and retail shopping area. The food in this part of Russia was so fresh, delicious and locally grown.   Honestly, both regions of Russia provided some of the best food I have ever tasted.  No kidding.  Fresh vegetables, cabbage, mushrooms were served daily at the Metro in Petrozavodsk and locally grown vegetables and fresh fish caught in some of the coldest waters in the world were served at the  Hotel Osnabruck in Tver.  The bad news:  Things got a little wacky with a visa official in Tver who at the last minute decided he wanted to make things very difficult for the "Americans" (that would be us!).  My poor husband was fined $500 US dollars for "not having the correct visa" and was booked, fingerprinted and told in broken English, "never come back to Tver if you don't want to get arrested!"  Well...I bet you can guess what our answer was...thank you and buh bye!

Two Amigos

Daddy and his boys

Awwwe!  The day we left the orphanage.